In the last post I talked about my reputation as a numbers guy and how I had never been too adept at handling the human side of business. While I was always able to work to my strengths before, now I was in a position where I had to face my weakness because I was the owner of my own company. This wasn’t going to go away; I needed to be able to communicate with and motivate my own employees. The employee recognition program that I put into place helped me do that.

Working with an experienced, reputable company in the industry I was able to put into place something that would really motivate my employees - and would communicate, even when I was not able to adequately do so, how much we appreciated their hard work. The way that the employee program worked was like this:

As a mid-sized company we had hundreds of different goals on a daily basis. Obviously we wanted to grow business and make money but - in addition to sales goals - there were goals that had to do with delivering excellent customer service, keeping the workplace safe and accident-free, and more. We determined which goals were important to us as a company and really spelling it out was enormously helpful.

Once we recognized our goals we were able to match incentives with particular goals. This was the fun part where we could identify which goals were worthy of which incentives and choose the incentive prizes that were within our budget. The great thing about the employee incentives is that we can always make changes based on our budget and how the company grows in the future.

We were then able to communicate this program to our employees which helped me specifically because I had something exciting to share. This would mark a new era for me in terms of improving my role as owner and manager.

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When it comes to doing business I am your guy. I know strategies and numbers and forecasts; I am able to predict sales trends and make adjustments accordingly, implement and manage plans that will see companies grow, and I always have an eye on the bottom line. While this is all well and good in business and has earned me a solid reputation in my industry, it does not tell the whole tale because as good as I am with numbers, I am not nearly as adept when it comes to people. In other words, I have a difficult time with employees sometimes and motivation is not my strong point. This was never too much of an issue in past roles because I was recognized as the bigger picture guy and others were in charge of communicating with employees - making sure that everyone was on the same page and satisfied with their jobs. Now, however, I had my own business and I was going to have to close that learning curve pretty quickly if I was going to be truly successful in my venture. The employee recognition program that I implemented was, by far, the biggest, most important thing that I did in helping to improve employee relations.

Incentive programs are nothing new and have been around for some time in a variety of ways. This, however, was something different - something structured, organized, and clear; in other words, something I could understand and appreciate. We worked with a highly reputable company that had the experience and expertise in putting together incentive programs for companies our size. We were able to choose the incentives that we wanted - determine the goals that we wanted to be met in order to receive those incentives - and the company that we hired handled and managed the whole thing. More in the next post…

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Most companies - regardless of size - experience at one time or another a breakdown in communication with their employees whether they have a dozen employees or thousands. In such a fast paced world, as we continue to do business faster and faster, we have learned to adapt through advanced technologies that allow us to communicate with our clients and our vendors at a rapid clip and in the most efficient way possible; but we have somehow failed to extend that level of efficient communication in-house amongst our team of management and employees. The result can often be a disenfranchised employee base who feels as though their needs are not only far from being met but are also being completely ignored. This was our story almost two years ago - the result of a combination of several different factors if I’m being honest but most stemming from our rapid growth. It was great to experience that level of growth and to have the opportunity to reach out to new sectors of business but in-house we were experiencing some pretty significant growing pains without a whole lot of ideas about how to manage them. The answer came in the suggestion to implement an employee program - a way that we could let our employees know that their ideas and needs mattered to us and something that could be controlled fiscally by growing or shrinking the program according to our budgetary situation at the time.

We began our employee recognition program on a pretty big scale. We were doing well and had the money to spend so we set up - with the company that helped us manage the program for our nearly 1,000 employees - a tier of management-determined business goals and prize incentives that would be offered to the employees who reached those goals. Again, we started strong with some incredible vacations and even flat screen televisions. It was the right thing to do and it would pay off in big ways when the economy crashed around us. More in the next post…

Popularity: 26% [?]

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In this day and age most employers will not argue that good employees are hard to find. It’s difficult enough to find someone who wants to work; who has a passion for what they do and a desire to achieve success. Then of course to find someone who is skilled in what they do and has the ability to hit the ground running is another thing entirely. Unfortunately it also seems that when those people are identified and they are trained and integrated into the workforce they leave sooner expected. Turnover continues to be high and for companies that desire to build a family of employees who stay with the company for the long haul this can be enormously frustrating. What causes such high turnover? There are a number of different factors. Job dissatisfaction, unhappiness with salary, desire to move on to another area to a higher position; the list goes on and on. But one thing that employers can do to make sure that they are doing right by their employees is to make sure that they are properly recognizing their work. What does this mean? Well what we are finding is that it means more than words and a pat on the back.

It is part of human nature to want to be recognized; for our hard work to be seen and validated. An employee recognition program allows employers to do more than just acknowledge their employees through their words; it allows them to acknowledge them through action. An employee rewards program matches achievement with different tiers of incentive prizes that employees can earn. Companies of all sizes, across all industries are finding the benefits in an employee recognition program - of being able to show their employees that their work is seen and honoring them for that work through a selection of prizes that can range from electronics to full blown vacations.

Popularity: 45% [?]

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Spending money in business is done with careful consideration. Return on investment, of course, is the biggest consideration when it comes to planning a budget. What will this short term investment deliver in terms of long term benefits? These were all the things we considered when we debated about implementing an employee recognition program. Here’s what we knew…we were tackling an employee morale issue and we didn’t have the cash on hand to be able to throw salary increases at everyone.We knew that incentive programs were a great way to improve morale - and subsequently improve production - and the investment could be as little or as much as we wanted. This was music to our ears as we tried to figure out the best way to grow our business and use our money wisely.

An employee program could be set up and managed with very little investment. It was a way to show our employees that we appreciated their work and it was a way for the employees themselves to become more engaged in their own work. Working hard to achieve specific goals is always a good thing for motivation and morale - especially when it involves healthy competition.

Best of all, the employee recognition program could grow right along with our company. As we grew and made more money we could throw more money into the employee program; allowing for better incentive prizes or an additional tier of prizes. What we liked so much about the program was that it was completely within our control; we did not need to commit to this huge financial investment in order to set it up; and the return on investment was well documented by other companies of our size that had realized huge leaps in production by implementing a rewards program of their own.

Popularity: 40% [?]

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Hiring a new employee is an investment on the part of every company. Think about it; you put time into training, you spend money on benefits and all the rest; you make an investment of time and money in every employee that comes to work with your company. Of course you want to minimize turnover; to maximize the chances that an employee will be a good investment and stay with your company for the long term as a valuable asset to your team. We make every effort in our business to reduce our turnover and to make it difficult for employees to walk away; we know that the early stage of any relationship is a trial run and we understand that new employees are evaluating us just as much as we are evaluating them. Which is why we very quickly enroll our new employees into our employee recognition program.

Incentive programs are nothing new in the workforce but they have grown in scale to be sure. Essentially a company puts together a tier of goals and corresponding prizes - jewelry, electronics, even vacations - that employees can win. This is a great way to spark competition, improve morale, and provide employees with motivation to achieve goals that may be above and beyond what they would normally do. We have used a rewards program in our company for some time and we are happy to extend it to our new employees almost right away.

What we have found is that new employees who are allowed to participate in our incentive programs are motivated to achieve success right from the start and we are able to capitalize on the motivation that already comes with starting a new job. Plus, we are able to show our employees right from the beginning that we are invested in them and willing to reward them well for a job well done.

Popularity: 44% [?]

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This year we have many goals as a company. We have made it through some tough times, fighting our way through less than ideal economic conditions and even keeping all of our employees on staff. We feel very proud that we have not had to let anyone go especially since so many in our industry have lost their jobs. Our employees have job security with us and we have done everything in our power to make sure that they have a steady paycheck. We rely on our employees to remain viable and successful and we want them to know how much we appreciate them which is why one of the goals this year is to implement a comprehensive employee recognition program.

An employee program will allow us to recognize the work of our employees in a unique and affordable way. The way in which an employee incentives program works is this:

We identify the employee program that we want to implement and the prizes that we want to offer. This is especially important because we can put together a program that is affordable for us now and make changes down the road if our budget allows us to provide higher-end prizes.

Set up the goals that correspond with the prizes. We identify the objectives that we want to set forth for our employees and create the tier of prizes that make the most sense.

Communicate to our employees what we expect from them, what we’re looking for in terms of meeting goals, and the prizes that they are competing to win.

Implement and manage the program. Once the employees are informed about the program we can put it into place and manage the program going forward - something that is very easy to do with the company that we have chosen to work with for our employee recognition program.

Popularity: 39% [?]

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In the last post we talked about adopting an employee recognition program as a way to reach out to our employees. The economic conditions were impacting us negatively - not because we were not going to be able to make it through the crisis financially speaking - but because the economic climate in general, and our inability to provide salary increases, were hitting our employees hard. We were experiencing a major reduction in production - something that very much could impact the future of our business. Our employees were tired, worn out and sick of the economy. The light had gone out in them and their work reflected that. We needed to do something and an employee recognition program had been suggested to us as a way to reach out to employees affordably.

We chose prize incentives that would allow us to recognize hard work and specific achievements made by our employees. These prizes fit within our budget and allowed us to make headway without breaking the bank. Best of all we could revisit our rewards program again and again, adjusting it to our financial needs and switching up prizes to keep things interesting for our employees.

The rewards program changed everything for us; completely changing everything for our company. We are able to give our employees something to work towards without making it unaffordable for us and I know our employees truly appreciate the opportunity to earn something that they want.

With employee morale raised production has increased and we are steadily working towards a successful year and staying afloat through this economic time until things get better. Most of all, we want to continue into the future with these employees by our side and we want them to know that we appreciate their efforts and consider them long term team players.

Popularity: 35% [?]

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There are many challenges in business; many obstacles that business owners face in not only keeping things up and running smoothly but achieving success. Finances are always something to consider obviously and can make or break operations but so too can a variety of circumstances. Sometimes it is clear what needs to be fixed and even how it can be overcome; but sometimes the road to recovery is more subjective. Employee morale, for instance, can seriously impact business operations but it can be difficult for business owners and management to know how best to approach this dilemma. For us, we found recovery through an employee recognition program.

We are certainly not immune to the current economic conditions and they have seriously impacted our operations but not in the way that you might expect. The tightening of our belts - and the atmosphere of this economic downturn - had taken its toll on our employees and lowered morale was what was ultimately impacting our business. Production was down because employees had lost their fire; they felt like no matter what they did nothing changed and we were not able to compensate them monetarily which was making people even more upset.

We decided to try something that had been suggested to us - an employee incentives program through which we could formally recognize the efforts of our employees by rewarding them with a variety of prize incentives from which they could choose. We didn’t need to be extravagant in choosing these prizes; we could work within our budget and still provide our employees a great selection of prizes. Just making this effort could affect morale and put us in a better place with our employees; something that we desperately needed if we were going to make it through this time. What we didn’t count on was how much an employee recognition program would change everything. More in the next post…

Popularity: 43% [?]

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Like most of the country, our state is currently in the middle of an unprecedented deep freeze. We have been relatively spoiled over the last several years - enjoying rather mild winters; and the current low temperatures have been a difficult adjustment for everyone. In my company, the cold has actually worked to our advantage in helping us to increase employee morale. How? Because of the employee rewards program that we recently implemented as a way to increase our productivity and bolster employee/management relations.

The employee recognition program had been something that we had considered for some time before putting into action. We were looking for a way to increase our production; and with a team of employees who seemed to be wilting by the month that seemed to be difficult. Admittedly we had not been able to be too generous with raises over the past year but we were facing economic restrictions like everyone else. What we did do, however, was decide to move forward with an employee incentives program so that our employees had a chance to excel and subsequently receive a reward of their choosing.

Initially the rewards program that we put in place included such things as small electronics and jewelry but when we saw what a big hit it was and how effective it was in motivating employees we quickly moved to the next level. Now we have bigger things like televisions and even weekend trips. The trips - to warm destinations - are what are causing the most stir right now and causing the cold weather to be on our side.

Since we began the rewards program we have communicated the process to our employees in detail. We made them aware of the goals that we had set for them and the prizes that they would be able to receive if they reached those goals. This had been enormously successful right from the start - but especially now. More in the next post…

Popularity: 42% [?]

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